Growing up, Prince Charles struggled to please his parents and to fill a role that was against his nature. In an adaptation from her new book, Sally Bedell Smith chronicles the brutal bullying the heir endured at school, and the unlikely place in which he found solace.

It was, in 1947, that rarest of unions: a royal love match. But though the dashing Prince Philip of Greece and the 21-year-old heiress to Britain’s throne were clearly besotted as they began a life and family together, trouble lay ahead as “Lilibet” became “Her Majesty” and the new Duke of Edinburgh chafed at his consort role. In an adaptation from her biography—timed to the monarch’s Diamond Jubilee—Sally Bedell Smith describes the dynastic struggle that rocked Queen Elizabeth II’s marriage and the difficult choices she was forced to make.

Drifting from Europe to Hollywood, Dodi Fayed moved in the massive shadow of his tycoon father, Mohamed, spending recklessly in pursuit of love and status. His romance with Princess Diana seems as inevitable as it was tragic.

With its dazzling cultural events and intimate, cut-loose evenings, the Kennedy White House reflected the conflicts and collaboration of a marriage in progress. Setting her own rules—whether by historic restoration of the mansion, tightly guarded playgroups for her children, or private retreats to Virginia hunt country and jet-set Europe—Jackie took steps to improve her sex life with Jack, even as she coped with his infidelities. In an excerpt from her book, Grace and Power, Sally Bedell Smith reveals how America’s most glamorous First Lady made 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue an unexpectedly happy home.